As anyone who likes unsociably loud music will tell you, heavy metal is popularly thought to have been born in 1970 when Brummie headbangers Black Sabbath released their self-titled debut album.
Let’s go one further and suggest that heavy metal really hit its stride for the first time with Sabbath’s second album, Paranoid, a heavier, more threatening and more nuanced collection of songs.
Committed metal fans of a certain age - shall we say, between 40 and 60 as you read this - know the eight-song tracklisting off by heart.
The one-two opening shot of ‘War Pigs' and ‘Paranoid' itself simply cannot be bettered in the metal world. The former, a critique of warfare and in particular of the American government’s policies regarding Vietnam, sees lyricist and bassist Geezer Butler on peak form - even if he can’t find a better way to rhyme ‘masses’ than with itself in the couplet “Generals gathered in their masses/Just like witches at black masses”.
The latter, a zippy paean to mental instability, is probably Sabbath’s best-known song, executed at a rare, non-doomy tempo. The album then moves on to the sensuous instrumental ‘Planet Caravan’, a beautiful, landscaped song, before the pulverising hammer blow of ‘Iron Man’.
Sabbath’s psychedelic and blues influences reveal themselves in ‘Electric Funeral and ‘Hand Of Doom’, the latter simultaneously terrifying and enthralling listeners with its sinister, bass-only introduction.
The album winds up with ‘Rat Salad’ - an energetic instrumental - and ‘Fairies Wear Boots’, said to be inspired by threats from a skinhead gang. It’s not sheer power that makes Paranoid a unique album, although it has that to spare: it’s the keen awareness of songwriting dynamics displayed by Butler plus singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony lommi and Bill Ward, all still in their very early 20s at the time of recording. That a record such as this was written and delivered by such young musicians is nothing short of miraculous, albeit in the infernal rather than heavenly sense.
TRACKS:
SIDE A SIDE B
1. "War Pigs" 7:57 1. "Electric Funeral" 4:53
2. "Paranoid" 2:48 2. "Hand of Doom" 7:08
3. "Planet Caravan" 4:32 3. "Rat Salad" (instrumental) 2:30
4. "Iron Man" 5:56 4. "Fairies Wear Boots" 6:15
FULL ALBUM:
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